Time Enough for Everything
by Audrey Lynne
Summary: He wasn't THE Doctor, but he was a doctor and he was hers.  Abby is a Time Lord's Companion.  He would give her the universe, but all she wants is him.  Family love, no romance.


"Just make gravity go away," Abby Sciuto muttered into the crook of her left arm as she peeled herself off the floor of the TARDIS. As far as days went, this one sucked.

"Hey," Abby called to her mentor as she got her knees beneath her and managed to stand up. "Worst day ever, am I right?" In all her sixteen years, with the exception of the day her mother died, she could not remember a day ever going nearly as awry as this. And she'd seen a lot in those sixteen years, especially this past year with her mentor.

"Doctor?" Abby started looking around, not having heard any reply to her question, rhetorical though it had been. He had a habit of answering her no matter what. He wasn't _the_ Doctor of infamy in the Time Lord circles, but he was _a_ doctor, having long ago taken an interest in the frailty of other species and what to do about it. "Doctor, where _are_ you?"

And then she found him. Abby gasped and ran to his side. He was still crumpled on the floor, seemingly unconscious. Abby had never seen him like this. He was always so resilient. "Doctor?" She shook his shoulder lightly; he barely roused.

Ten years ago, Abby had been a normal child in an abnormal life. Like other Time Lords, Abby's doctor preferred to travel with a Companion. He and Abby's mother had been together for a couple of months when she learned she was pregnant, a parting gift from the abusive husband she had left behind, in a time period when women couldn't simply ask for divorces. Despite the unconventionality of the situation, the Time Lord offered a home for Abby and her mother, as long as they wanted it. They stopped traveling for awhile, living together as a family. Although Abby had always been introduced to him as a mentor and friend, her doctor was the best father she could have asked for. He showed her the world, the universe, and manipulated time itself. They made a great team, ever since Abby's mother had been murdered when Abby was six.

Grief sent the Time Lord back to the stars in his TARDIS, but he took Abby with him. They had been hopping from one time period to another ever since, never getting involved in anything too reckless, mostly just taking it in. Traveling with him gave her a better education than any school system on Earth could possibly match. There was no way he was going to send her off to history class, memorizing and reciting boring facts, when he could show her the real thing himself.

Abby didn't panic easily, but she was close to it. She wasn't even sure when or where they were. She didn't know how to operate the TARDIS; whenever she had asked to learn, he would laugh and tell her she was "too young to drive." The chameleon circuit was still intact – at least Abby hoped it was after the crash – so she wasn't worried about how to explain the TARDIS' presence. All of her concern was for her mentor.

"Are you all right?" Abby asked, though it was clear he wasn't. "Come on, wake up for me. For Abby, huh? We're a team; I can't do this without you." She bent over him, hugging him tightly. "Don't you dare leave me. Don't you go!"

Just then, a light began to emanate from him, a light so bright Abby was forced to look away. His body grew warm to the touch, then hot, and Abby reluctantly released him, afraid her hands would burn. After a few bewildered moments, Abby realized what must be happening. He had spoken to her about regeneration before, careful to mention that a Time Lord was only allowed so many in a lifetime. _"I've got one left," _he always said, _"so I can't be like a cat, using lives willy-nilly. Of course, that's a myth; Earth felines only live once."_

When the light faded, he was literally a new man. Slightly older, with graying hair. No sooner had he sat up and started to examine his new hands than Abby grabbed him, hugging him tightly. "You're alive!"

"Well, of course I am, dearest." He grinned. "That extra life came in handy after all, it seems."

"Boy, did it," Abby murmured into his shoulder, not letting go quite yet. She finally pulled back so she could face him. "So what now?"

"First," he said, "I find out what's happened to us. Then, we find a nice time and place and it's high time I put all this tomfoolery behind me. It was reckless enough to raise you as I did, but no more. It's a new day. Why, you could have been killed in this crash!"

"But I wasn't," Abby pointed out. "I'm fine." She declined to point out that he nearly _had_ been killed, as he was more than aware of that fact. She wondered if she should have been more disarmed by his new appearance, but, then, she had always known this could and would happen someday.

He shook his head. "Nevertheless. You can't change my mind, Abby. It's time for me to retire. After I fix this old gal up."

"Where will we go?" Abby asked, standing as he rose to his feet.

"We'll figure it out." He started scanning the TARDIS' control console. "I've always been partial to the sixties. You are such an earthy sort; I think you'd do well."

They had lived in the eighties when Abby was little, and she laughed at the thought that she was going to grow older in an earlier time. "Okay. Can we go back to New Orleans?"

"But of course, my dear, so long as we live in a different part of town. Wouldn't want to run into anyone we'll know later. Time can be so fragile, wouldn't want to be starting any paradoxes."

Somewhere in her heart, Abby knew these whiplash-quick changes would catch up with her later, once she'd had time to process. But she was used to thinking on her feet and going with the flow. "Oh, of course." She frowned, thinking of her current choice of music, when she was alone in her room in the TARDIS. "I am going to miss metal, though. Think maybe I could come out here sometimes and listen?"

"We'll see," he replied, lifting his arm as if to hide his smile. Abby caught it anyway. "But, first, before we _go_ home, we've got to _find_ it." His eyebrows furrowed together. "There is one consideration, though."

"What's that?" Abby asked.

"Given the time period, I'm afraid you're going to have to start calling me 'Father,' at least in public."

Abby nodded. It wasn't as if he weren't already that. "Father" was a little formal for her taste, however. "How's Dad?"

The corners of his lips turned upwards, just a little. "I suppose I could get used to that quite nicely."

? - - - - - - - - ?

"Dad" was so much more natural to Abby than "Doctor," as it turned out, and they settled into 1962 New Orleans quite nicely. After using their resources to put together the necessary paperwork, Abby was enrolled in school, and though the style of dress was more conservative than she liked, she found herself at home with the geeks at her school. She had to hold back in science discussions, lest she accidentally disclose something that hadn't been discovered yet. Her father, as he was formally, having included the details of adoption paperwork in their identities, had taken Abby's last name as his own when creating an alias. He was a doctor, working with several others in a practice, and it suited him.

Abby wondered how long until Jonathan Sciuto was going to tempt time. She had made him promise he wouldn't travel without her, unless it was travel of the mundane sort, and he had agreed. But sooner or later, he was going to say something, get someone started on some idea. It was one of his hobbies, taking his ideas and helping people invent things in a way so natural that they never realized another had planted the seeds. He was never after glory; he just loved humans and the ways their minds and bodies worked.

It took Jonathan exactly four months from the time they had arrived in New Orleans to come home with _that_ smirk on his face.

"Oh, man," Abby groaned, secretly delighted. "What did you do now?"

"I was talking with the most wonderful fellow from England," he said, sitting down on the couch. "He's a writer."

"And?" Abby prompted.

"I told him a little about a friend of mine." The smirk got a little bigger. "He proposed the most wonderful adventure."

"Which friend?" Abby asked, hoping it wasn't the first suspect that came to mind.

"Oh, you know him. Everyone does."

"You didn't!" Abby jumped off the couch, spinning about to face him. She couldn't believe it. "What – after all you've taught me, you didn't!"

"Now, Abby, dearest, I never once said the words 'Time Lord.' He's a very clever man. Came up with that all on his own."

Abby wasn't outraged. In fact, she wasn't angry in the least. Flabbergasted was more like it. "That's one hell of a risk, _Dad_. I suppose you claimed that Gallifrey was a town in Eastern Europe?"

"I know what you're thinking," Jonathan said. "First, I have two words for you: plausible deniability. If anything comes of this, no one will believe that it could possibly be real. I was merely having a little fun. And, second, I'm merely settling a score that goes back two hundred and seven years."

"Brother." Abby sank back down onto the couch. "This is heavy. If this blows up in our faces and we have to hightail it out of here, you know it's your fault."

"Fair enough," Jonathan allowed. "I'm sure it'll be harmless. Though, based on the strength of your reaction, I wish I'd had you around when I convinced that caveman he'd invented the wheel."

Abby shook her head. "I'm sure it rocked."

"Rolled," he corrected.

Abby dropped her head into her hands. "And, suddenly, he's a comedian."

? - - - - - - - - ?

On Abby's twenty-first birthday, the last gift her father gave her was a copy of her high school diploma. Dated in the 1990's. And her original birth certificate. "What's this? For giggles?"

"The start of our very last trip," Jonathan explained.

Abby cocked her head at him. "I thought this _was_ our last trip."

"It was supposed to be," Jonathan said. "But I failed to anticipate one thing. For all the progress women make this decade, you're never going to achieve your full potential here. It's not remotely fair you should be disadvantaged because of your gender, but it's going to happen and I won't stand for it. You are a woman of science and you should be given every opportunity. It's time you joined the future you were born to, before I came along and turned everything topsy-turvy."

"You're serious." It wasn't a question.

"We'll need more than what you've got there, naturally, but it's a start." Jonathan put his hand on her shoulder. "What do you say?"

Abby thought for a long moment. "Well, it does kind of suck that I can't join the FBI. And you should have seen the guy I tried to get a tattoo from yesterday! He said he doesn't do ladies."

"And, thus, the world is poorer because you have no spiderweb detailed on your anatomy." He always teased her like this, completely deadpan.

"Exactly! If guys can rock the body art, why can't I? It'd be groovy." Abby grinned. "I can join the FBI and play metal and it'll be awesome. I'm liking this." Again, like after Jonathan's regeneration, Abby knew the details would hit her later with the force of a two-ton brick. "This is heavy...but I'm so excited!" She danced in place before lunging forward to hug him. "You're the best."

"I do love my girl." He patted her back. "Now we lay the groundwork and say our goodbyes."

? - - - - - - - - ?

Goodbye was too soon. While Abby was in college, her father died. She was with him, holding his hand. He was relatively young, at least in human terms, and so they'd wanted to do an autopsy. Abby had refused, despite her curiosity, knowing her last duty was to protect him – even if he couldn't resist starting a hit television series about his "friend."

Abby's FBI ambitions had turned to NCIS, at first because they were the first to offer her a job and later for the people. Gibbs reminded her so much of her father, with all the bluster he put forward to hide his warm heart. Ducky, with his incredible knowledge and stories that made her long for childhood days at her father's side, listening to his tales of the universe. Gibbs' team, all special in their own ways and each of them dear to Abby's heart.

Abby knew exactly where the TARDIS was in case of emergency. All she would be able to do would be to broadcast a signal and hope help arrived. She didn't dare do more, not without guidance. But it was there, hidden away, blending into its surroundings as it was meant to do.

It had taken awhile for Abby to stem her case of the giggles when McGee would mention his favorite sci-fi shows.

It had broken her heart that she couldn't change time for Kate.

It was much harder than she'd thought to keep her secrets from Gibbs.

Abby always suspected Gibbs suspected something, but fortunately for Abby, he was soft enough on her that he never pried too hard. He obviously didn't consider whatever he felt she was holding back to be a threat, because if it was a threat, no power in the universe could keep him from the answers he sought. Abby loved him. She loved them all.

"Hey, Abby!" Tim McGee bounced into Abby's lab. "You get that analysis finished yet?"

"Did you get an email from me yet?" Abby asked.

McGee consulted his PDA. "Um, no."

"Then, no." Abby patted his arm. "When I hear from my babies, you will hear from me."

"You want company?" McGee asked. "I don't want to go back and tell Gibbs I have nothing."

Abby chuckled. "You could let me tell him. Or you could stay here. It's only gonna be, like, five minutes more."

"I'll wait." McGee sat down. "Tony's on a kick today...he's playing party games. He actually asked Ziva to tell him something he didn't know about her."

"What did she say?" Abby asked.

"That if he didn't know, there was a reason." McGee grinned, that little grin he always got when something amused him. "So what's something I don't know about you?"

Abby shrugged and decided to take a page from her father's book. It was his birthday in three days, at least the day they'd chosen to represent it. "I was raised by aliens."

McGee nodded sagely. "That would explain a lot."

"Hey!" Abby protested. "I don't make fun of you! Much. You know when I tease."

"And you know when I tease." McGee's smile turned fond as Abby's machine beeped.

"Got it!" Abby bounced over to read the results. "Now you can go back to Gibbs with your head held high because the fibers match."

McGee frowned. "We were hoping they didn't."

Abby shook her head. "We don't always like the evidence we're presented, but it is science and science will save the day." This never got old for her.

Of all the places in the universe she could have been, she knew she was in the right one.


End file.
